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President Bush, Address to the Nation, September 7, 2003
Excerpted; full text posted at the official White House website.
For a generation leading up to September the 11th, 2001, terrorists and their radical allies attacked innocent people in the Middle East and beyond, without facing a sustained and serious response. The terrorists became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak. And they grew bolder, believing that history was on their side. Since America put out the fires of September the 11th, and mourned our dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power.
| Like I've said before, Iraq, coincidentally, is in the heart of the Arab world. |
This work continues. In Iraq, we are helping the long suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly â yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security.
| It's a fight we can't afford to lose... |
The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror, and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.
| But that will only happen after we've passed the tipping point. Until then, everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will swarm in with its beturbanned minions to try and snuff it out... |
Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free of them â free of assassins, and torturers, and secret police. They know that as democracy rises in Iraq, all of their hateful ambitions will fall like the statues of the former dictator. And that is why, five months after we liberated Iraq, a collection of killers is desperately trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into chaos.
| They've figured the tipping point thing, too. We've forced them to make Iraq their Plan Z â an all-or-nothing thing. Unless they realize quickly that they can't win and withdraw from Iraq, resorting to nothing more than their usual tactics of torment, they're going to be as resoundingly defeated as they were in Afghanistan, as resoundingly defeated as Sammy was. Three strikes, you're out... |
Some of the attackers are members of the old Saddam regime, who fled the battlefield and now fight in the shadows.
| Those are the practitioners of the tactics of torment... |
Some of the attackers are foreign terrorists, who have come to Iraq to pursue their war on America and other free nations. We cannot be certain to what extent these groups work together. We do know they have a common goal â reclaiming Iraq for tyranny.
| Probably at this point there are multiple groups, all aiming for the big time, with Zarqawi â our primary enemy in Iraq â working to amalgamate them into a coherent force. |
Most, but not all, of these killers operate in one area of the country. The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks have occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between Baghdad and Tikrit â Saddam Hussein's former stronghold. The north of Iraq is generally stable and is moving forward with reconstruction and self-government. The same trends are evident in the south, despite recent attacks by terrorist groups.
| The Kurdish areas were generally stable and prosperous before the war â they're not Wahhabis. The Shias probably would have been the same, had Sammy not ruled with an iron but inept hand. Wahhabism is a Sunni phenomenon, and that's where the Sunnis live as well as where Sammy's base of power (and now unemployed henchmen) live. |
Though their attacks are localized, the terrorists and Saddam loyalists have done great harm. They have ambushed American and British service members â who stand for freedom and order. They have killed civilian aid workers of the United Nations â who represent the compassion and generosity of the world. They have bombed the Jordanian embassy â the symbol of a peaceful Arab country. And last week they murdered a respected cleric and over a hundred Muslims at prayer â bombing a holy shrine and a symbol of Islam's peaceful teachings.
| I'm not too sure I'd use the word "peaceful" with regard to Islam's teachings, but he's trying to avoid the perception of declaring war on all Muslims. |
This violence is directed not only against our coalition, but against anyone in Iraq who stands for decency, and freedom and progress.
| Without individual liberty, the first and last are impossible. Decency is relegated to the individual rather than being the mark of society. And progress implies a societal goal greater than the mere retention of individual power. |
There is more at work in these attacks than blind rage. The terrorists have a strategic goal. They want us to leave Iraq before our work is done. They want to shake the will of the civilized world.
| I hope he continues to refer to "the civilized world" in his speeches. The short attention span set tends to forget, or not to understand in the first place, that it's our very civilization we're defending. |
In the past, the terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from a challenge. In this, they are mistaken.
| But that makes me look closely at the statements by Bush's Dem challengers. They don't paint a pretty picture. Nor is it just the Dems. We can't forget Pat Buchanan and Harry Browne |
The Americans who assume great risk overseas understand the great cause they are in. Not long ago I received a letter from a captain in the 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad. He wrote about his pride in serving a just cause, and about the deep desire of Iraqis for liberty. "I see it," he said, "in the eyes of a hungry people every day here. They are starved for freedom and opportunity." And he concluded, "I just thought you?d like a note from the 'front lines of freedom.'" That Army captain, and all of our men and women serving in the war on terror, are on the front lines of freedom. And I want each of them to know, your country thanks you, and your country supports you.
| We do, and at least one of us who contributes to Rantburg would be there if he was younger and still bent in the middle. |
Fellow citizens: We've been tested these past 24 months, and the dangers have not passed. Yet Americans are responding with courage and confidence. We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and resolute in our own defense. We are serving in freedom's cause â and that is the cause of all mankind.
| Bush is here complimenting the nation on what he thinks it can be, rather than what it actually is. The combination of short attention span, an active intentional and unintentional fifth column, and an antagonistic press dilutes the reality of what we are. Part of the fault for this lies with the Bush administration. I've said before that he should be reminding us, with each and every speech, of 9-11-01. The people of the U.S.A. should be exposed to the Friday sermons at Mecca and the cries for enslaving Jewish (and later Christian) women. Americans should know the name and opinions of Hafiz Saeed and Qazi and Hamid Gul and all the other wonderful Learned Elders of Islam. We should know it, it should be taught in every school, starting from grade one. |
Thank you, and may God continue to bless America.
Posted by: Mike 2003-09-08 |
